A romantic story could be written around any port in Scotland, although in its way Aberdeen is unique. Dundee's story is also outstanding. While Aberdeen was the pioneer of the great racing clippers which brought Britain world-wide fame as well as commerce, Dundee had its great whaling fleet, the trading adventures in the icy North, and the building up of its staple industry of jute with India. And the same romance surrounds other seaports both in the East and West of Scotland. But Aberdeen is fortunate in having one more. capable historian in Mr. V. E. Clark in a volume just published "The Port of Aberdeen."
The Scottish Maid, built in 1839 to compete with the paddle steamers between Aberdeen and London, was the pioneer of the clipper-built. ships. And the first British clipper to enter the China seas to compete with American opium clippers was the Torrington, built by Alexander Hall & Ca., Aberdeen. That was in 1845. But the fame of Aberdeen is based on the great tea clippers. In 1844 the repeal of the British Navigation Laws threw open our foreign markets to the world, and brought our mercantile marine into direct competition -with that of other nationalities. The American clippers seized the opportunity to enter the British tea trade, in which for a time they held supremacy, wresting the tea trade of London out of the hands of English shipowners. To prevent. the complete extinction of this valuable trade, we had to bestir
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.